* 2 January 1915 in Treptow/Rega (East Pomerania); † 31 January 2004 in Berlin
 
German painter
 
Hans Laabs is a master of well-thought-out compositions and pictorial arrangements that emerge spontaneously from impressions experienced during the painting process. Tension between the forms and colors, at times disharmonies, as well as script as ornament are all characteristic features.
Laabs received his first artistic formation from 1937 to 1939 from his teacher Vincent Weber, a Bauhaus student, at the Applied Arts School in Stettin. From January 1940 on, he is a soldier in World War II. In September 1945 Laabs moves to Berlin and attends a nude drawing course at the University of Arts. He is one of the last private students of Oskar Moll. In 1949 he is a co-founder of the artist cabaret “Die Badewanne”. His circle of friends includes his artist colleagues Werner Heldt, Jeanne Mammen, Alexander Camaro, Hans Uhlmann and Eduard Bargheer. He collects their art and also that of others. From 1953 he lives and works the summers on Ibiza and the winters in Berlin. From 1984 he lives permanently in Berlin and travels regularly to the coasts of the North Sea and Baltic Sea. He produces a substantial and mature late work. Laabs participates in many exhibitions nationally and internationally.